“Selling my virginity for 200,000 RMB [±29,500 US$] to save my sick brother.” It is a sign that is held by a girl in school clothes standing on the streets near the West Lake in Hangzhou. The girl became a trending topic on Sina Weibo on November 10, under the hashtag of ‘Selling Virginity to Save Brother’ (#卖处女之身救兄#).
The girl is a 19-year-old student named Xu Yanhua (许艳花), whose story has been picked up by local Chinese media. Hangzhou Online found that Xu’s 23-year-old brother has already been suffering from leukemia for three years, and that the family has a debt of 100,000 RMB (±14,750 US$) in hospital bills. Since the burden of the boy’s medical costs has become too high to carry for Xu’s family, the girl decided to sell her body in order to cover for her family’s debt and her brother’s future treatment.
Xu previously already received media attention for selling red peppers to save her brother, after which some netizens nicknamed her “pepper girl.”
The girl provided media with her brother’s medical records to prove her predicament is real. A local journalist noted how a concerned female citizen offered to give the girl 50,000 RMB (±7300 US$) if she would stop her from selling her body, but the girl allegedly refused.
According to Hangzhou Online, the girl was taken to the police station soon after her endeavor attracted people’s attention.
On Weibo, many netizens cannot sympathize with the girl: “This is just to create a hype and it makes me nauseous,” one netizen commented: “They could’ve done a fundraising for her brother instead. Where’s your self-respect?”
“Nowadays so many people make a hype to win sympathy. Is her virginity really worth 200,000 RMB?”, another netizen said.
The girl also has her own Weibo account, where she has recently placed more photos of herself and her sick brother.
Although netizens place hateful comments underneath her photos, there are also those who support her: “Hang on, girl, wishing you all the best.”
– By Manya Koetse
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